Facing Addiction in America: Spotlight on Opioids (2 credit hours)

Program Summary:  This course takes a comprehensive and practical look at opioid misuse, treatment, overdose, and recovery.  The course includes a discussion of the prevalence of opioid misuse and the neurobiology of addiction.  Treatment approaches include a combination of medication-assisted treatment and psychosocial therapies.  FDA-approved OUD medications are discussed.  The reading includes Facing Addiction in America:  The Surgeon General’s Spotlight on Opioid.  


Course reading:  Facing Addiction in America:  The Surgeon General’s Spotlight on Opioids

Publisher:  US Department of Health and Human Services; The Office of the Surgeon General

Find the reading at:  https://addiction.surgeongeneral.gov/sites/default/files/OC_SpotlightOnOpioids.pdf

Course Objectives:  To enhance professional practice, values, skills, and knowledge by identifying key issues related to OUD intervention and treatment.

Learning Objectives:  Define prescription opioid misuse and opioid use disorder.  Describe the 3 stages of the addiction cycle and the brain regions associated with them.  Describe the “gold standard” for treating opioid addiction.  Compare the FDA-approved medications for OUD treatment.

Review our pre-reading study guide.



1: Fentanyl is considerably __________ potent that heroin.
2: Opioid overdose deaths were five times higher in 2016 than in 1999.  The majority of these opioid overdose deaths were
3: Despite the fact that effective treatments for opioid use disorder do exist, only about one in ___________ people with this disorder received specialty treatment for illicit drug use in the past year.
4: The primary care system has been slow to implement
5: Individuals receiving buprenorphine with counseling have  significantly _______________ total health care costs than individuals receiving little or no treatment for their opioid use disorder.
6: Which medication can be prescribed by any licensed clinician who has prescribing authority?
7: Brain changes endure long after an individual stops using substances and may produce continued, periodic cravings for the substance that can lead to relapse for many
8: Well-supported evidence suggests that the addiction process involves a three-stage cycle:  1) binge/intoxication; 2) withdrawal/negative affect; and 3)
9: Which brain region is involved in the stage:  preoccupation/anticipation?
10: Which of the following types of intervention is aimed at all members of a given population?
11: The US Preventive Services Task Force recommends that clinicians screen adults aged 18 years or older for
12: The diagnosis of a substance use disorder is made by a trained professional based on _______________ symptoms defined in the Fifth Edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5).
13: Naloxone is an opioid antagonist medication approved by the FDA to reverse opioid
14: A person with opioid use disorder who undergoes medical withdrawal and returns to use is at a(n)  _________ risk of overdose.
15: Which FDA approved medication for OUD can only be dispensed in a federally-regulated opioid treatment program?
16: Patients who receive MAT for _____________ than 90 days have not shown improved outcomes.
17: Decades of research have shown that
18: Which of the following best describes recovery from substance use disorders?





